1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for providing cards for subsequent processing, and particularly to a method and a device for providing cards for card handling systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known systems for handling cards operate such that that the card, such as a thick plastic card of the type CR-80, is automatically connected (applied) to card carriers in variable number. The card carriers provided with plastic cards are then packed into envelopes in an enveloping station or are folded and sealed and subsequently supplied to further processing. In addition, any supplements may be associated with the card carriers to be enveloped and/or folded together then.
In prior art, various methods and devices for applying plastic cards and card carriers are known. From DE 195 08 282 C1 and from DE 195 33 444 A1, methods and devices are known to combine and connect plastic cards and card carriers using a print job number. After combining and connecting, the plastic carriers are enveloped and supplied to further processing. A similar method is known from DE 197 25 579 A1, in which the combination and connection of plastic cards and card carriers is verified using a check sum. A method and a device for combining and connecting plastic cards and card carriers using a job number are known from DE 197 34 483 A1, wherein processing is performed offline.
Yet another method is known from DE 102 50 653 A1, in which a card is first provided and then card data thereof are detected, wherein the card carrier is generated based on these cards.
The above known methods are the connection of card carriers and cards, wherein the cards comprise a magnetic stripe or other storage unit which may be read out by reading means, to store specific data of the card or specific data of an owner of the card. Alternatively, it is also possible to connect cards which do not obtain personalized data, but only provide general information.
In the above methods and devices known in the art, the cards are always provided by card magazines, which contain a plurality of identical cards. Various implementations of such card magazines are known, wherein the so-called revolver magazine is to be mentioned here, among others, in which a multitude of card magazines, preferably four card magazines, are arranged rotatably, wherein the cards are always drawn from one card magazine. If a card magazine has been emptied, a rotation of the revolver magazine is caused to provide a new, filled card magazine so that the overall system may be provided with cards without major interruption. Alternatively, the various card magazines may be arranged in parallel to each other, wherein the supply of the cards first starts with a first magazine and then, after it has been emptied, a second subsequent magazine is used.
The cards drawn from such card magazines are then supplied to the applier, wherein reading of the cards is preferably performed prior to applying. In the so-called card channel between the card magazine and the applier, there are preferably provided a plurality of readers to be able to read different card types. These readers include, for example, an OCR reader, such as for the detection of a bar code, a chip reader for reading out memory or processor chips on the cards, and/or a magnetic reader for reading out magnetic stripes. In addition, any other suitable readers may be provided for the detection of information from the cards. Furthermore, other devices may be provided for handling the cards, such as turners which turn the card after drawing so that a desired face of the card has a certain orientation (for example upwards).
During operation, both the applier and the card channel receive a so-called job description in the form of a file. The applier obtains information both on the number of the cards to be applied to the carrier and their positions on the carrier. The card channel is informed about the kind of cards, i.e. the card type, among other things. For example, information regarding the card type include the specification, whether it is a thick plastic card, a thin plastic card, an embossed or an unembossed plastic card. Further, information is provided specifying whether a storage medium is arranged on the card or not, wherein, in the first case, there is further specification whether the storage medium is a chip, a contactless chip, a magnetic stripe, optically detectable information or the like.
These data thus specified in the job definition are provided to the handling system, and the handling system configures the corresponding elements for processing the corresponding cards. In this context, there is, for example, a determination in the card channel which of the readers located there have to be activated for the cards to be processed and which have to be deactivated. There is further a determination which of the additionally provided card handling devices (such as turners, etc.) are to be activated/deactivated to ensure a desired handling of the received card. This is important because readers which do not generate a signal issue an error signal so that the whole system stops. In the case that, for example, a chip card is used and is guided through a magnetic stripe reader, there is no output signal of the magnetic stripe reader so that it issues an error signal which results in stopping or delaying the overall operation. In order to avoid this, an activation/deactivation of the corresponding readers in the card channel is caused via the data specified in the job definition to thus ensure suitable processing for the cards provided in the card magazine.
In the case that all magazines in the card feeder are populated with the same cards, the various magazines may automatically be processed consecutively. The processing of cards of different types is only possible with very large effort and thus reduces the system's flexibility.
A further disadvantage is that processing jobs in which cards of a different type are processed is very complex and, in the case that the number of card changes, is not possible at all. As an example, assume the case that three cards are to be applied to a card carrier, wherein a first card comprises a chip, a second card comprises a magnetic stripe, and a third card does not comprise any storage media, for example a customer card having general customer information regarding service telephone numbers or the like. In this case, it is necessary to inform the handling device in the job definition that, for each carrier, first a chip card, then a magnetic stripe card, and then a card without storage medium are provided, wherein the cards then have to be provided in the corresponding order in the card magazine. It is again necessary to provide the system with exact information regarding the order of the different card types in advance to allow proper driving of the individual components, for example of the different readers in the card channel. This approach is also very inflexible.
The case in which different numbers of cards have to be provided for different carriers is also very difficult to handle in such known approaches, because the corresponding cards have to be arranged in the corresponding order in the card magazine, just as in the case described above, and, in addition to the job definition, each single job has to be defined exactly to allow the corresponding driving of the card reading elements in the card channel.
In cases in which it is possible that the card feeder feeds a plurality of, i.e. more than two, cards in parallel, the corresponding information for each carrier also has to be provided in the job definition so that the system can manage the corresponding activation/deactivation of the card reader in the card channel.
In summary, the disadvantage of the known prior art approaches is that they always use card feeders which are only suitable for providing cards to the handling system, but do not provide any flexibility in connection with the provision of different cards for the overall system, because the required job definition, and particularly the information regarding the card type, always have to be provided to the overall system in advance to ensure proper operation.